"I trust you alarm yourself needlessly about your father, my dear Lady Laura," he said presently; "but, upon my word, you cannot be more anxious to see this affair settled than I am. I want to spend my honeymoon at Lyvedon, the quietest, most picturesque old place you can imagine, but not very enjoyable when the leaves are falling. My good uncle has set his heart on my borrowing his house for this purpose, and I think it would please Geraldine to become acquainted with an estate which must be her own in a few years." "Unquestionably," cried Lady Laura eagerly; "but you know what Geraldine is, or you ought to know--so foolishly proud and sensitive. She has known you so long, and perhaps--she would never forgive me if she knew I had hinted such a thing--had half-unconsciously given you her heart before she had reason to be assured of your regard: and this would make her peculiarly sensitive. Now do, dear George, press the question, and let everything be settled as soon as possible, or I have an apprehension that somehow or other my sister will slip through your fingers." Mr. Fairfax looked wonderingly at his charioteer. "Has she said anything to put this fancy into your head?" he asked, with gravity rather than alarm. "Said anything! O dear, no. Geraldine is the last person to talk about her own feelings. But I know her so well," concluded Lady Laura with a solemn air. After this there came a brief silence. George Fairfax was a little puzzled by my lady's diplomacy, and perhaps just a little disgusted. Again and again he told himself that this union with Geraldine Challoner was the very best thing that could happen to him; it would bring him to anchor, at any rate, and he had been such mere driftwood until now. But he wanted to feel himself quite a free agent, and this pressing-on of the marriage by Lady Laura was in some manner discordant with his sense of the fitness of things. It looked a little like manoeuvring; yet after all she was quite sincere, perhaps, and did really apprehend her father's death intervening to postpone the wedding. He would not remain long silent, lest she should fancy him displeased, and proceeded presently to pay her some compliments upon the roans, and on her driving; after which they rattled on pleasantly enough till they came to the green slope of a hill, where there was a rude rustic stand and a railed racecourse, with a sprinkling of carriages on one side and gipsy-tents on the other.